Static
by ElectricLeaf
Summary: When Grace's brother Jake disappears after entering a restricted forest, everyone quickly assumes he either ran away or was killed by a random psycho. But when Grace starts receiving cryptic messages, she realizes that Jake may still be alive, and that she is the only one who can save him. If she fails though, it could mean her own demise.
1. Missing

_''This has been the third missing person reported this month, and like the preceding two, was last seen before entering the forest on the side of Timberpine Road. As you know, this is a restricted zone due to the incident of 1974, when 24 children all vanished at once without leaving any trace of evidence. Now more recently, what started as a young troublemaker looking for fun has turned serious. We suggest you all stay well away from the forest until further investigation.''_

Grace turned off the TV. She had heard enough. Sliding off the couch, she glanced at the clock. 11:45. She figured she might as well get in bed, even if she didn't feel very tired.

The house was eerily quiet as she tiptoed through the hall to her room. Her mom and dad were asleep upstairs, oblivious to the fact that she was still up. Then again, they might have known she was awake and didn't care. They didn't seem to care quite as much about anything since her brother Jake had gone missing.

He had done it as a dare, a simple thing to impress his friends. They had all joked about it before sending him into the forest, equipped with only a flashlight and a video camera. Grace had been worried about it at first, since two people had already disappeared, but figured he could handle himself.

He never came back.

The police questioned everyone that had seen him the day before, seeing if he had reason to run away. Grace knew he wouldn't have run away, her brother wasn't that kind of person. But she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt him. Sure, he got on people's nerves from time to time, but he never caused any harm. Plus, he was too smart to have gotten lost or carried away by some wild animal. Grace was running out of theories, perhaps all the rumors were true, and a crazed serial killer was doing this.

The day after the police left, Grace found something on her porch.

It was her brother's video camera.

She glanced around to see who could have left it so early in the morning, but the neighborhood was still. Picking up the mud covered device, she hid it in her room before her parents saw it. Grace thought about watching what was on it, but was too afraid of what she might see.

Tonight she decided she would finally look at it.

Once in her room, Grace locked the door and dimmed the lights. Her parents would make her give the camera to the police as evidence, but she felt someone had brought it to her for a reason.

Her hands trembled as she took the camera out of the box under her bed. She had a sickening feeling that this video might reveal who-or what- was behind the kidnappings.

When she pressed the play button the footage, everything appeared to be normal. Her brother went through the woods, making jokes about the creepy myth surrounding the forest and swearing when he would hear a twig snap.

Then, he came across a small clearing with a huge creepy tree in the center. Walking up to it, he noticed the piece of notebook paper stuck to it. Zooming the camera lens up to it, he read it out loud.

''Always watches...no eyes.'' Jake stayed silent for a moment, then started to laugh. ''Well, someone obviously is trying to freak me out, hey guys! I know you followed-''

But Jake got cut off by a sudden terrible, booming noise. It sounded like a drum, only it played the most malevolent rhythm, and continued to get louder.

''What the f...'' Jake trailed off, and started to walk faster. ''That's it, I'm out of here.''

When he arrived at the edge, a huge metal fence loomed over him.

''That wasn't here before.'' Jake said quietly. As he turned to go back, a loud crack came from somewhere in the distance, and the camera screen blurred with static.

''This isn't funny anymore guys!'' Jake yelled, running away from the noise. ''I give up, you win!'' Grace could hear the panic in his voice now. Her heart was beating furiously too, and she had the urge to turn away and never look back.

But she didn't. Jake soon crashed into the ground, tripping over something. The camera fell with him, but she could still hear his blood curdling scream as the video was overcome with static once more.

Only this time, a face appeared within the static. A face with no features whatsoever.

For some reason, Grace knew it could see her.

**And with a sinking feeling, she realized she was next.**


	2. Message

Grace knew nothing of sleep that night. The haunting image of that featureless face wouldn't leave her memory, try as she might to banish it. She couldn't stop thinking that what had befallen Jake and the others was all part of something much larger. And who had taken the time to write that note on the tree? She had a feeling it hadn't been a joke by his friends. That note had been a warning, a sorry attempt to turn around the people that were already trapped there.

As Grace realized this, a static buzzing filled her head. It was incredibly loud, and she couldn't help throwing her hands over her ears to try and quell it.

But if anything, the noise grew louder. With a silent scream of frustration, Grace jumped out of bed and shook her head as hard as she could, willing it to leave. It was the same static sound at the end of Jake's video, carrying the same supernatural undertones with it. She wondered if Jake had heard it in his head too, right before...before whatever had happened, happened.

A different noise cut the buzzing off abruptly. Grace turned to see her computer screen light up with a crackle, static flowing through the screen.

Grace was trembling as she shuffled slowly towards it. She had turned it off hours earlier, she was sure of it. All the lightbulbs in her room flickered on and off softly, and the floorboards squeaked agonizingly.

The monitor continued to pop and fizz as she reached her hand tentatively towards it. Suddenly writing flashed across the screen, so rapidly she could barely read it.

It was the same message flashing over and over.

"**IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR BROTHER AGAIN, COME TO THE FOREST.''**


	3. Arrival

Grace knew what the right thing to do would be. Report this all to the police, turn over the camera, and let them do their job while she sat at home, anxiously awaiting any news.

But Grace also knew that was exactly what she wouldn't do. The worst thing besides missing Jake was sitting at home, completely useless. If there was any chance, however slight, that he was still alive, she would jump to search every corner of the earth until she found him. He was-_or had been_-one of her best friends in addition to being her brother. He was only a little more than a year older than her, and ever since childhood they had done everything together. They had played video games, listened to music, watched horror films, and discussed plans for the future, all while laughing in the face of any danger, recklessly risking their lives on occasion just for a good joke.

And that's just what Grace was about to do. Except this time, no one was laughing. A perfect opportunity had presented itself, and to waste it would be the funniest thing she had heard in a long time.

Almost as soon as she made her decision, the message disappeared, leaving the monitor completely blank. Grace couldn't help but be put off at this, it was as if it had heard her thoughts.

She knew in her gut the message had meant tonight. Any later would be_ too late_, and she wasn't going to risk losing more time than she had already.

Not bothering to change the pajama shirt she she was wearing, Grace threw on a pair of faded jeans, an old jacket, and hiking boots. Scanning her room one last time, she decided to bring Jake's camera, just in case. Tossing it in a bag with a flashlight, she quietly stepped in the hallway and closed her door.

As she padded over to the back door, she listened to the sound of her sleeping parents breathing. She felt terrible heading off in the middle of the night, them completely unaware. They had already lost one child less than a week ago, what would happen if she went missing as well?

Deciding to jot down a note just in case, she left it on the kitchen fridge. It read, ''Gone for a quick stroll. Be back soon. Love you guys, Grace.'' She hoped her words would turn out to be true, and not come back to bite her. If it counted for anything, she meant the last part with all her heart.

As the back door swung shut softly, Grace felt the crisp night air hit her face and neck. Pulling her jacket tighter around her, she took the first few steps in the direction of the woods.

As she walked, every sound seemed to be a siren in her ears, and she glanced around nervously to make sure she wasn't being followed. At one point, she swore she saw a man in a suit watching her from across the street, but when she turned to look, he was gone.

Never had she been more on edge in her life. But her mind was made up. She was going to do this, or die trying.

It could have been a lifetime, or just a few seconds, before the weathered sign that read 'Timberpine Rd.' came into sight. Just behind it, loomed the imposing forest that had been home to many disappearances. Repressing the voice in her head that screamed for her to turn back now, before it was too late, Grace crept up to the side of the trees.

Jake was right, the metal fence in the woods had come out of nowhere. As she squinted out in the darkness, the only signs of a border she saw were a few wooden posts, sunken into the mud, and a large poster stating, ''KEEP OUT''.

Getting out her flashlight, she panned the light deeper in. A few paths forked in front of her, and thinking quickly, chose the one on the far left. Jake had always told her that if you didn't know what was right, go left. She smiled as she thought of this, and sped up, heading farther and farther into the abyss of trees.

Suddenly, the terrible buzzing filled her head again. Dropping the flashlight and clutching her temples in pure agony, Grace sunk to her knees, biting her lip to refrain from crying.

This wave passed much faster than the first, and Grace rose shakily, picking up her flashlight and fumbling to turn it on.

After feeling relief that it was still in operation, Grace felt a strange sensation prickle across the back of her neck. Turning around, she saw something that made her heart stop dead in her chest.

A huge, metal fence leaned over her in the direction she had come, with barbed wire at the top. Everything behind the fence was blurred and out of focus, as though she had entered another dimension.

Another wave of static crossed her vision, sending a new message directly to her brain.

**-''Welcome to Slender Woods. You won't be leaving. Ever.''-**


	4. Evidence

Grace stood silently for a moment. The voice that had just spoken in her brain had not been her own. That inhuman voice, that had sounded as clear as if someone had been standing next to her, whispering in her ear. The voice that stirred the greatest sense of despair in her soul. The voice that must have been lying. Of course she could leave. And why had it called this place Slender Woods? That didn't make sense at all.

Grace brushed it off. She was tired, and was hearing things. That was all it was.

She walked briskly along the path, shining her flashlight to make sure she wasn't missing any clues. She wasn't going to leave without some answers.

Grace stopped suddenly. She was standing in small clearing, with a huge, giant tree at the center. Where Jake had stood.

Trembling slightly, she worked her way around the tree, seeing if she could find the note Jake had seen.

And pinned up low behind the tree, she did.

How it moved places she didn't know, but she wasn't going to risk it disappearing. It was evidence as far as she was concerned.

Her hand stopped as reached out to grab it. The message had changed. On film, it had read ''Always watches, no eyes.'' Now it was just a picture of a stick figure among hastily drawn trees.

''What is this?'' Grace mumbled to herself. No one would believe her that the message had changed, and if she drew the one on camera, she'd be cheating herself.

Who could have possibly moved the notes around? No one in their right mind would enter the forest after everything that had happened. Well, Jake had, but Grace wasn't sure he had been thinking straight. If someone was playing a joke, they were taking it to far.

Grace tore off the note and stuffed it in her bag. As she stepped away from the tree, she heard it.

The banging of a drum. The same malevolent drum Jake had heard.

Someone knew she was here. The messages, timing, was all too perfect. Grace turned on the video camera and held it in front of her, seeing if she could catch anyone on film, or at least pick up the noise as proof.

Then her screen crackled with static, and the voice entered her head again.

_''You must find eight.''_

The screen cleared once more, along with her head. Find eight? Pages? Perhaps that was the only way whoever was doing this would give her Jake back and let them out. If that was the case, she needed to find them all. Fast.

She hurried up the beaten path, clutching the camera and flashlight tightly as she tried not to trip over rocks or tree roots. She was so busy watching her feet that she almost didn't see the truck until she bumped into it.

It clearly hadn't been used in forever. It was covered in rust and one of the front tires was flat. The driver door was ajar, and Grace shone the flashlight in the interior, checking for pages. When she didn't find any, she walked around to the tiny shed that sat behind it. She ran her hand along the graffiti covered metal walls, considering if this was all some wild goose chase.

Having been distracted, she didn't realize there was a note on the side of the building until her hand stopped right over it. Plucking it off, she looked it over.

On it was the word ''FOLLOWS', with another stick man next to a tree. She wondered who had written it. What exactly did it mean by ''follows''? Could it have been one of the victims? Was the same person writing all these notes? Or were multiple people responsible?

Placing it in with the other, she aimed her camera at the building to prove she found one here as well.

The screen was crackling again, more subtly this time, though no less creepy. Grace had a nagging sensation that she needed to get moving. The drum beat seemed to get louder the longer she stayed in one place.

After another trek through an endless array of trees, she came across another truck. This one was a mottled brown color, from rust or paint she couldn't tell.

After a quick inspection, it was clear there weren't any notes. Grace was starting to get paranoid. How many places would she have to check?

But this thought got cut off when she noticed something sticking out from under the hood of the truck.

After a few attempts of prying the almost completely rusted hood up, the object had enough room to slide forward a bit more. Grace carefully pulled it out and inspected it.

It wasn't a note, but a photo. It depicted solemn faced children walking together, looking a bit on edge. Odder still, a tall, featureless, figure towered above them in the background. Grace thought it looked an awful lot like...the face at the end of the video.

The drum beat was getting closer, and Grace knew she had to find a third note soon. Deciding to take the photo with her, she cut quickly through a patch of trees, hoping she wouldn't end up where she started.

After tripping over stones and crashing through branches for about a minute, Grace stumbled into a huge clearing. A large building took up most of the space, and Grace couldn't suppress a groan. It would take her forever to find a note in that place, not to mention she didn't like how easily someone could corner her in there.

Though for the sake of Jake, she had to go in. Running up closer, she noticed several different entrances around the perimeter of the building. Like before, she picked the one on her left.

Peering inside, the interior looked like a public bathroom. Black stains spotted the ceiling and floor, and the whole place smelled like rotting waste. Grace kept her head down as she walked in, footsteps echoing on the tiled floor.

Pretty soon in, she realized it wasn't really a bathroom at all. Short hallways and turns led to nowhere, and several times she had to turn around after going in a circle.

Grace was about to give up in frustration when she came upon an overturned chair in a corner. A note hovered above it.

''Don't look or it takes you.'' Grace mouthed the words silently. Another stick man in the corner. Had someone been chasing the writer? Not wanting to be here any longer than she had to, Grace took it and was about to leave when she saw something protruding from the chair legs.

It was a small, yellowed newspaper clipping. Unsure how all these things got here, Grace picked it up and read it carefully.

_One of the few ever to return from the forest, she claims a faceless man in a suit tried to attack her with life-draining tentacles from his back. This testimony can't be counted as reliable as said victim was in bad condition,experiencing memory loss, insomnia, and violent coughing fits. Evidence she turned in proved to be nothing more than video frames of blurred static, and pages of scribbled nonsense._

_Family members say she was acting incredibly paranoid, claiming ''he was always watching her'', a few days before dying of a heart attack._

Something about the clipping rang strangely through Grace. Turning it over, she noticed a date scrawled on the back.

July 23rd. That was about a week from today. Grace wondered how many years it would be since the newspaper article had come out.

She had been so caught up in thinking over this new piece of information that she didn't notice how loud the drum beat was now, or how her camera was practically screeching from how loud it was crackling.

She felt a sickening presence all of a sudden. Turning around, she saw what was right next to her.

**A tall man with no features whatsoever, and shadowy tentacles protruding from his back.**


	5. Assurance

Grace was hardly conscious where she was running to. All she cared about was running from _that thing_. She heard screaming, and realized it was coming from her own throat. Her shoes slapped against the bathroom tiles as she stumbled around corners to the nearest exit. The light from the flashlight bobbed up and down as she ran with it. Up ahead, she could make out the faint outline of what appeared to be several huge tanks.

She hurried as fast as she could to them, and ducked behind one in the middle. Gasping for breath, she sunk to the ground, still in shock from what she had encountered.

She had dropped the newspaper clipping when fleeing, but had managed to keep a grip on her camera. The static was gone and it seemed to be working perfectly again. It was still recording, so she stopped it and rewound back to when she was in the bathroom.

The image wasn't clear, and most of the time the camera was just angled on her feet. Though when it started crackling and buzzing, there was one quick, horrendous, shot of the creature that approached Grace. No facial features, some type of tentacles on his back, and... he appeared to be wearing a formal suit. Grace found this quite odd. Why would a supernatural creature be trying to impersonate a human? Odder still, she couldn't believe she was admitting it was paranormal. But that seemed to be the only logical answer in this case. And now that the monster had seen her face to face, she felt even more pressured to find Jake.

Shakily rising to her feet, she knew she had to stay calm. It felt as though the thing had been draining all her life and willpower when it was next to her, and she'd had a moment of temptation to give up. Luckily, her love of her brother was stronger, and it won out in the end. At this rate though, she didn't know how much more she could take.

Looking with the flashlight, she saw a page on the end of the tank opposite her. It was the same one Jake had found.

''Always watches...no eyes.'' There was a little face in the center with two x's where the eyes should be. Grace hadn't noticed that earlier.

She put this one in her bag with a little more care than the others. It was the best connection she had to Jake at the moment. The fact that it was in a different spot was unsettling, but she didn't concentrate on that. She was at the halfway mark. A renewed confidence spewed through her. She could do this.

Unfortunately, a dense fog was starting to roll in, making it harder to see. Spotting another path up to the left, Grace jogged back through the rest of the tanks, watching the camera screen for static. If she had anything figured out, it was that the screen went haywire when the monster was near.

Eventually she came across another landmark. It was a dark, cement tunnel. As creepy as it was, Grace wasn't to be intimidated. Trudging through and searching the walls, she allowed herself a feeling of triumph as she found another page tacked to the right wall.

''Leave me alone.'' she whispered, reading aloud. Almost as if on cue, her camera started staticing. A voice cut into her head.

_''Never.''_

Any euphoric feeling she had moments before was diminished by that single word. It had the power to paralyze her down to the core. This beast wanted her. And it wasn't going to give up until it had her.

With this in mind, Grace got angry. Why did it want Jake, the others, and herself? What purpose drove it to taking innocent teenagers?

This creature could mess with her all it wanted. But it wasn't going to take her soul. Not as long as she had something to live for.

She exited the tunnel, vowing she would kill it if necessary.

After a tense minute of walking, Grace spied an odd pocket of trees. For some reason, they had their tops cut off, so they were half trunks. There wasn't any other path leading from the small clearing, and there weren't any branches or cut logs around them. Stranger still, they were all the same height, cut with such precision that their edges were perfectly smooth.

Before she had a chance to look around, her flashlight flickered out. Cursing aloud, Grace felt her way through through them. No pages on this one, not this one, this one either...

Not being able to see in the pitch black night, she tripped over a rock and slammed face first into the next tree. Rubbing her nose, which had gotten the blunt of it, her hand drew back blood. This didn't bother her too much, she could deal with a little injury, until more dripped on her hand.

From high above.

Looking up, she saw where the blood was coming from.

A human corpse was impaled on one of the trunks.


	6. Voices

Her mind was screaming at her to run, but her body wouldn't budge. For a paralyzing moment she thought it was Jake, but holding her camera up as a light, saw the glint of blond hair on the decomposing scalp. Jake had brown hair. Breathing a sigh of relief, Grace felt only a little guilty at it being another poor victim up on the tree.

When looking at the mangled features, Grace was sure she had seen him before.

Then she remembered. He had been on the news. It was Wallace Anderson, the first person to disappear. And the first to cross her path, dead.

His hand was clutched around something. It was a black iPod, veins of cracks running through it's glossy surface. Prying it from his stiff grip, Grace tried turning it on.

The instant the screen lit up, a video started. The quality was terrible, but a panicked voice rang clearly through it.

''He's after me...following me...can't ever escape...the only thing I could do was leave those notes as a warning...though when I went back to check on them, they had all switched places. He's toying with me, I know it, I know it.''

There is a long pause in Wallace's ramble, in which the sound of running is the only thing Grace can hear. When he starts speaking again, the words are hollow.

'' ...Maybe he's right...best to give up now. No one can beat the Slender Man.''

Right after saying that final remark aloud to himself, static overtook the entire video, drowning him out.

But when the face of the monster came from within the static, his scream was clearly audible.

Throwing it to the ground, Grace stormed out of the clearing. She didn't bother checking for more notes. If she was subject to any more of this, she was going to go crazy. Or at least more than she already was at this point.

She wanted to deny all the evidence she had found suggesting that Jake was a goner. Because that would be admitting that this had all been for nothing, and that she'd likely lose her own life tonight out of pure idiocy.

She got more frustrated as she stumbled through the forest in the dark. Tears welled up behind her eyes. She could keep trying to convince herself into acting brave, but in the end, she was a coward. She hadn't even had the courage to stop Jake from leaving for the forest that night, even when she could feel in her gut something would go wrong. She had just smiled and wished him luck. Now he might be dead because of her silence.

_''What a pity. I thought you would last longer.''_

The voice might as well have been her own. ''I thought so too.'' Grace mumbled. Images of corpses and news reports filled her head, this time her story among them.

_''Is that defeat in your voice I hear? What happened to all that stuff about killing me earlier?''_

So it had been the ''Slender Man'' speaking to her. He sounded almost casual now.

''I don't care anymore. Jake is probably dead anyway.'' Grace responded sullenly.

_''What if I told you he was still alive?''_

She froze on the path. The thudding of the drum kept beat with her own heart. Fog drifted absently around her ankles.

''What?''

_''Barely, but still alive. I could give him to you in exchange for something.''_

''And what would you want in exchange?'' Grace whispered to the silent forest.

_''I think you know what, Grace.''_ The voice intoned.

The notes were the first thing that came to her mind. He had, after all, asked her to find eight in the beginning. But if that was truly what he wanted, Slenderman gave no indication. The voice in her head was gone, but she had her vigor back. Knowing she had something to strive for made all the difference.

Who would have known the monster stalking her would be her salvation.

Forgetting it had lost power, Grace flicked on her flashlight, and was surprised to find it working. Maybe it recharged by itself. Or maybe someone else recharged it for her.

Whatever the case, she found the next area much quicker with it. A random crisscross of brick walls, whoever built it had either been drunk or just stupid. They didn't block anything in or out, and were completely out of place in the creepy woods.

They were a good place to put a note though, and Grace found one quickly between two sides.

''Can't run.'' she read. A chill breeze ran through her hair, plastering strands to her face. A wave off nausea hit her as she brushed them away. If she didn't stay alert, she might collapse from exhaustion at any moment.

Turning around, she slammed back into the wall in shock.

Slenderman was staring at her from ten feet away. A wide smile was drawn on his face in blood.

**''Never said I wouldn't kill you beforehand Grace.''**


	7. Restitution

Unfortunately, Grace now saw the true purpose of the brick structure. It was the perfect place for Slenderman to corner his victims. The note she had just found hadn't been placed there on coincidence either. Can't run was right. She truly was pressed into a corner.

With a crazy demonic creature headed straight towards her.

In a last stitch effort, she turned off her flashlight and sunk to the ground the instant before his tentacles hit the wall behind her. An intense cold pulsated off them as she rolled under them. She couldn't see where she was going, but Slenderman didn't seem to know where she was either. An angry hiss of static issued from each tentacle as it tried grasping empty air.

Once she was far enough away, Grace got up and ran forward. Slenderman's cold presence still lingered, though she had put enough distance between them that he couldn't reach her.

She knew if she turned on her flashlight he would spot her right away, but she also didn't have time to search for areas blindly. Cupping her hand around the bulb to dim the light, she turned it on and aimed it through the trees, never stopping or slowing down.

After a moment, her beam happened upon a huge rock. Multiple rocks, to be exact.

As she jogged up to them, she stepped on something, making a sickening squishing sound. Barely daring to look down, she saw her shoe was covered in a red liquid.

She decided to focus her attention forward again.

Only the red liquid was covering entire sections of the rock, and was impossible to ignore.

As were the miscellaneous body parts littering the ground.

Grace felt like throwing up. She had never felt more disgusted in her life. This monster would do this to her if it caught her. It would do it to Jake too, if it hadn't already.

The worst part was, a human head sat in the center of the semicircle of rocks.

The seventh note dangled out of it's mouth, soaked in blood.

This time Grace did throw up. She couldn't help it, she had recognized the victim by their glasses and frizzy red hair. It was Rachel Finley, the second person to go missing. She had suspected she might find her, but this...she hadn't anticipated something of this magnitude.

A chill crept through her spine. He was close. She could tell. Taking a shuddering breath, she knew what she had to do.

As she withdrew the note from the girl's mouth, more blood rushed to replace where the note had been.

And Rachel's eyes opened.

Grace screamed, realizing too late what it had cost her. As Slenderman appeared a few yards behind her, she shut off the light again and hightailed it outta there.

Only now did she notice how exhausted her body was. It was probably only an hour until sunrise, and she wasn't even sure if she could last the long. Her own limitations might get her before , Slenderman would.

Only one note left though, she thought with a loopy giddiness. Looking at the blood soaked parchment between her fingers, she made out the words ''HELP ME'', scrawled considerably larger on this note than the others.

It struck her as ironic that the note had been in Rachel's mouth, when those were likely the last two words she ever said. Or maybe Slenderman had planned it that way. His idea of a practical joke.

Maybe everything she had been doing was a practical joke to him. Even if that was the case, Grace couldn't afford to think about it now.

She had a final note to find, and a brother to save.

Instead of seeking out the final area, it seemed to find her. The silo, towering above all the other trees, seemed to have manifested itself out of nowhere. With no visible entrances, it appeared it's sole purpose was to be a beacon to others, in this case harboring a note for Grace.

Even from where she stood, Grace could see the faint outline of a paper, basking in the last rays of moonlight before the sun came out. Setting aside her stuff, she knew she might not get the chance to retrieve it if something went wrong.

But all she really needed to bring home was Jake, she reminded herself. Maybe things could even go back to normal, though she doubted they would after everything that night.

Stepping towards the silo, a calm sense of acceptance flowed through her. She might die tonight, she might live. All that mattered was that she had tried, had been willing to give up her life for one she loved.

She held her breath when her fingers brushed the paper. Taking it off and clutching it, this note was the most foreboding yet.

A larger drawing of Slenderman was in the middle, flanked by rows of ''NO'' along it's instant her mind processed the words, the forest grew pitch black again. Even the moon disappeared, and the branches on all the trees withered and curled.

Until she realized they hadn't been branches at all, but tentacles.

The temperature must have dropped fifty degrees when Slenderman appeared across from her, at the distance two people in a standoff might be.

Materializing from thin air, Jake lay in the center between them, unconscious but unharmed.

Grace made to run towards him, but noticed how Slenderman positioned his army of tentacles around them, poised to strike. There was no avoiding them now. One wrong step and they'd both be killed.

Slenderman's black aura of static was omnipresent as he spoke icily in her head.

_''Are you prepared to give me what I want in exchange for your brother?''_

''Yes.'' Grace said resolutely. ''I collected all eight pages.'' She laid the one she had just got in front of her. ''The other seven are in my bag. Feel free to take them.''

She expected him to make a dive for the pages. Instead, he did something she hadn't expected at all.

He laughed. If you could call that malevolent, booming sound a laugh. It shook Grace up inside and made her feel like the world's biggest idiot. What had she done wrong? Did he not want the notes after all?

_''I never wanted the notes. I could have gotten them myself at anytime. I repositioned them myself, you know! I just wanted to see if you could get them all. No one else has been able to. I have to applaud your willpower.'_' He communicated gleefully.

Grace's throat felt very dry as she asked quietly, ''What did you want, then?''

_''I think you know what Grace.'_' He repeated the same line from earlier.

And Grace did know what he wanted. But she couldn't, and wouldn't, bring herself to say it.

_''I told you before Grace. You won't be leaving. Ever.''_

A life for a life. Slenderman was all for equal trades. How could she have ever possibly thought he would take eight pieces of paper for a human victim?

But she didn't trust him either. When she was gone, he would likely kill Jake anyway.

So it was with a vague plan and a dash of insanity that she leapt over to Jake, taking the eighth note with her.

And when the tentacles came straight towards them, she calmly held out the note, and tore it into two.

The tentacles froze, inches from her chest. If Slenderman could have shown expressions, he would have been wearing a look of utter astonishment.

For while the notes had already been his, they had also been part of him. Ever since that boy had written them and died for them, Slenderman had become emotionally and physically attached to them.

And as Grace continued to tear it into pieces, Slenderman found himself weakening. His ghostly darkness faded, revealing the early morning sun.

Before he could stop her, Grace had grabbed her bag and started ripping up the rest of them.

**_''NO!''_** Slenderman shrieked inside her head.

''You're not taking anymore lives today!'' Grace exclaimed, throwing herself over Jake as the sun came out all the way, slicing up Slenderman's shadow tentacles into millions of fragments. He disappeared with them, leaving Grace and Jake behind in the now normal forest.

The trucker, who had stopped to fix a flat tire, came across two kids walking out of the woods, a girl bruised and bloody, and an older boy slumped across her back. As he called out to them, the girl took one look at him and passed out from exhaustion. Alarmed, the trucker dialed 911 on his phone right away, and ran over to the teens.

The last thought on Grace's befuddled mind as the man lifted her head and tried to wake her was that they were safe, she had done it. Slenderman was gone forever, and no one else would be hurt from now on.

**What she didn't realize, was that the last note she had forgotten to rip up was in the corner of her bag, a strange trace of shadow lingering on the back of it.**


	8. Resolution

The note, which had shied itself away from Grace's grasp every time she touched it in her ripping rampage, had developed a personality of it's own. It was the one that Jake had first seen, and the one that Grace had established as one of her last connections to her brother.

Because of this, Slenderman chose this note as the one to attach the last fragment of his being to. If he could just consume one more soul he might be able to regenerate...and considering Grace had spent so much time in his madness inducing presence, he felt she was an easy target. He just had to wait for the perfect moment.

From the Timberpine Times:

_July 17th_

_Today has been tragic for two families, a new beginning for another. This morning, Grace Somers, 16, and her brother, Jake Somers, 17, came out of Timberpine forest, exhausted but unharmed. As you know, Jake had been the most recent victim in a wave of disappearances. All had gone missing in Timberpine woods, where local legend says a monstrous psychopath lives there, claiming the souls of children and teens. Strangely, whenever investigators and police neared the forest, they would get severe headaches, and all electrical equipment would stop working._

_However, the police were able to enter the woods today, and came across the bodies of Wallace Anderson, 16, and Rachel Finley, 15, the other two to disappear. While they have refused to release any official statements, rumors of impalement and severed limbs circulate. As for the Somers, they are being held in the hospital overnight to check for injuries, and will give a formal testimony tomorrow._

_Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and may the person who did this be found and brought to justice._

_(for more information, see page 3)_

Grace hadn't been well since the incident. She had thought everything would be better, but it wasn't. Jake didn't remember anything during the time he had disappeared, and when Grace tried to show him the film, all that came up was static. Meanwhile, her mental health was deteriorating. While Slenderman was gone, the memory Grace had of him wasn't. He was everywhere. In the shadows of rooms. In the static of the TV. In the window at night. On her computer screen.

She would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, positive she had felt a cold tentacle on her ankle.

She stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Stopped talking. Everytime she closed her eyes or tried to relax, he was there. Taunting her.

Worst of all, no one believed her. Not the police, her parents, her friends, or even Jake. They assured her that she was paranoid, that as bad as the killer might be, he was human. Therapists calmly explained it was just post-traumatic stress syndrome. People would laugh when she saw notebook paper, or bald men in suits. Of course, that was only during the first few days, when she had dared to go outside.

She wasn't going to risk going out there. Maybe he wasn't completely gone. She hadn't really been focusing when she had ripped up the notes, perhaps she had missed one.

But she had searched her bag from top to bottom, and nothing else was in it. So she settled into a paranoid stupor, never feeling at ease, even indoors.

One night, she could sense something different in the shadows,

And she was right. The note had turned into a pure manifestation of darkness, slithering up the wall across from her bed.

She had known this was going to happen. So she just stared ahead, at the slowly forming figure of Slenderman. Ever since she had stepped into the forest, he had power over her soul. And while he hadn't succeeded in taking it earlier, he had left an imprint on her, making her powerless the next time he came.

Because Slenderman was a businessman. He would let Jake live, as long as Grace held up her end of the bargain. A soul for a soul. A reasonable proposition in his eyes.

At least Jake was safe, Grace thought in submission. And hopefully Slenderman couldn't reclaim his forest after everyone had swarmed it.

She realized something else, too. The newspaper article she had found in the forest.

It had been about her.

As Slenderman loomed directly over her, Grace stopped thinking.

The rest just became static.

From the Timberpine Times:

_July 23rd_

_Yesterday, Grace Somers, sister of recently found Jake Somers, passed away in their home in the middle of night. Ever since the tragic events of July 17th, Grace had acted irrational and eventually refused to communicate or leave the house._

_One of the few ever returning from the forest, she claims a faceless man in a suit tried to attack her with life-draining tentacles from his back. This testimony couldn't be counted as reliable as said victim was in bad condition,experiencing memory loss, insomnia, and violent fits of coughing. Evidence she turned in proved to be nothing more than video frames of blurred static, and pages of scribbled nonsense._

_Family members say she was acting incredibly paranoid, claiming ''he was always watching her'', a few days before dying of a heart attack._

_Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family, who had already almost lost a child earlier this week._

_And may the person responsible for all this strife never hurt anyone again._

**Well, that's the end! Of this part at least... ;) Thank you to everyone who stayed through the entire thing! Your reviews and favorites were what inspired me to keep writing. I am planning a sequel, but I want your input on what it should be about.**

**Here are your two options:**

***Through Jake's POV. Taking place after Grace's death, he starts remembering parts of what happened during his disappearance. As he realizes too late that Grace was right, he searches to uncover the real reason she died, and sets out to eliminate the one responsible once and for all.**

***Through Grace's POV. After waking up in Slenderman's nightmare world, Grace realizes that while she's dead, she can still take down Slenderman from the inside. With the help of his other victims, they traverse this hellish place, finding a way to defeat their captor and escape.**

**So, please leave a review on which one you like! Both will contain elements of newer Slender games, like the Arrival and/or the Awakening. Thanks again! Hope you enjoyed reading.**


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